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University  of  Calif  ornia  •  Berkeley 


.PAMPHLET  BINDER" 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Stockton,  Calif. 


American  -  Japanese 
Relations 


;  ;•  .  v    ...  .  .   . 

Be?v 


•      '  •  i   ,     -     i  • 


The  James  H.  Barry 

San    Francisco,    California. 
1921 


American-Japanese  Relations 


TKe  Necessity  for  a  Clearer  Understanding 

Between  the  Workers  of  trie 

Tvto  Countries 


PAUL  SCHARRENBERG 


*  * 


Reprinted   from    The   Annals,    Published    by   the 

American   Academy   for   Political    and 

Social    Science. 


The  success  of  any  civilization 
is  to  be  measured  by  the  comfort  of 
its  Workers,  not  by  tke  affluence  of 
its  drones. — Walter  MacartKur. 


toisu 

American-Japanese    Relations 


*  * 


The  Necessity   for   a  Clearer  Under- 
standing Between  trie  Workers 
of  the  Txtfo  Countries 


*  * 


The  Oriental  immigration  problem  has  always 
been  distinctively  a  California  problem. 

For  seventy  years  the  working  people  of 
California  have  striven  for  legislation  prohibit- 
ing the  further  immigration  of  Oriental  laborers. 
Certain  internationalists  and  intellectuals  of 
various  shades  have  expressed  doubts  about 
the  wisdom  of  adopting  an  exclusion  policy. 
But  men  and  women  whose  occupations  have 
brought  them  into  direct  contact  with  the 
Chinese  or  Japanese  have  never  had  but  one 


opinion  as  to  the  significance  of  their  admis- 
sion. Whether  in  the  mining  camps  of  the 
early  fifties,  in  the  factories  and  workshops  of 
the  later  periods  of  industrial  development,  or 
as  tillers  of  the  soil,  we  find  the  same  bitter 
complaints  of  the  evils  of  such  competition. 

If  Californians  had  been  able  to  legislate  on 
the  subject,  the  question  would  have  been 
settled  long  before  the  Chinese  had  arrived 
in  sufficient  numbers  to  constitute  a  serious 
problem.  However,  under  our  system  of  gov- 
ernment Congress  claims  exclusive  right  to 
regulate  immigration.  Hence  it  was  necessary 
to  convince  the  nation  before  the  desired  re- 
lief could  be  obtained.  And  this  was  not  an 
easy  task.  The  small  minority  within  the  State 
whose  interests  were  opposed  to  restrictive 
legislation  were  greatly  reinforced  by  the  mer- 
chants of  older  states,  who  feared  to  jeopardize 
the  rich  trade  of  the  Orient,  and  by  idealists 
who  were  loath  to  recognize  the  world-old  sig- 
nificance of  race  in  the  application  of  their 
theories  of  political  and  social  equality.  Only 
by  the  persistent  and  sustained  effort  of  the 
working  people  of  California,  first  the  State 
and  then  the  Nation  have  been  converted  to 
the  policy  of  Chinese  exclusion. 

No  sooner  had  the  Chinese  immigration  prob- 

4 


lem  been  disposed  of  to  the  general  satisfac- 
tion of  Californians  when  the  menace  of  un- 
restricted Japanese  immigration  came  to  the 
front  with  startling  rapidity. 

For  250  years  prior  to  the  arrival  of  Com- 
modore Perry,  Japan  had  excluded  all  foreigners 
(barbarians)  except  a  small  number  of  Dutch 
traders  who  were,  however,  restricted  to  a  small 
island. 

Commodore  Perry  anchored  off  Uraga  on 
July  7,  1853.  Five  years  later  the  first  official 
treaty  between  the  United  States  and  Japan 
was  signed  to  take  effect  on  July  4,  1859. 

Only  33  years  later,  in  1892,  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  Convention  adopted  reso- 
lutions demanding  extension  of  the  Chinese  Ex- 
clusion Act  so  as  to  include  Japanese.  And 
fifteen  years  after  this  demand  was  made,  i.  e., 
in  1907,  a  so-called  Gentlemen's  Agreement  was 
arrived  at  through  diplomatic  negotiations 
whereby  the  Japanese  Government  agreed  to 
keep  laborers  from  America. 

But  the  Gentlemen's  Agreement  has  not  been 
a  solution  of  the  problem.  In  California  the 
demand  for  the  exclusion  of  Japanese  is  more 
general  and  more  pronounced  today  than  ever 
before.  Of  course,  the  organized  working 
people  have  been  in  the  vanguard  of  this  move- 

5 


ment  just  as  they  led  in  the  struggle  for 
Chinese  exclusion.  Leadership  in  this  respect 
does  not  mean  hurling  the  most  bricks.  To 
the  contrary,  Labor  in  California  has  severely 
frowned  upon  violent  anti-Japanese  manifesta- 
tions. And,  although  this  is  not  generally 
known,  it  is  a  fact  nevertheless  that  California 
trade-unionists  have  at  all  times  made  earnest 
efforts  to  eliminate  the  harsh  and  unpleasant 
features  incident  to  such  a  campaign  of  propa- 
ganda. 

There  are  many  concrete  examples  to  bear 
out  this  contention.  But  just  one  will  suffice 
to  illustrate  the  point.  Two  Japanese  presented 
credentials  as  fraternal  delegates  to  the  annual 
convention  of  the  California  State  Federation 
of  Labor  which  met  at  Santa  Rosa  in  1915. 
The  report  of  the  Committee  on  Credentials, 
made  to  said  convention,  clearly  sets  forth 
California  Labor's  attitude  toward  the  workers 
in  Japan,  and  is  quoted  herewith: 

"There  have  been  submitted  to  the  Commit- 
tee on  Credentials  two  credentials  for  fraternal 
delegates  from  the  Laborers'  Friendly  Society 
of  Tokio,  Japan,  namely,  B.  Suzuki  and  S. 
Yoshimatsu. 

"Your  Committee  has  given  careful  consid- 
eration to  the  question  of  seating  these  men. 


It  has  been  said  that  the  Laborers'  Friendly 
Society  is  not  a  bona  fide  trade-union.  It  has 
also  been  alleged  that  these  two  men  are  not 
representing  the  working  people  of  Japan,  but 
are  rather  agents  of  the  Japanese  Government 
in  a  well-planned  campaign  to  weaken  our  im- 
migration laws,  etc. 

"Your  Committee,  however,  has  not  been  fur- 
nished with  any  evidence  to  substantiate  the 
allegations  referred  to.  We,  therefore,  recom- 
mend that  both  be  seated  without  vote. 

"We  have  arrived  at  this  conclusion  (1)  be- 
cause the  seating  of  these  delegates  in  no  way 
affects  our  attitude  or  modifies  our  demand  for 
the  exclusion  of  all  Asiatic  laborers  from  our 
shores;  (2)  because  we  believe  it  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  spirit  of  International  Unionism 
and  to  our  own  advantage  to  aid  and  encour- 
age the  working  people  in  Japan  to  organize 
and  better  their  conditions." 

The  Committee's  report  was  adopted  and  the 
delegates  seated.  During  the  second  day's  ses- 
sion Delegate  Suzuki  read  a  carefully  prepared 
paper  to  the  convention.  His  address  was  made 
a  part  of  the  printed  proceedings. 

The  same  convention  which  extended  every 
courtesy  to  the  Japanese  delegates  did  not  fail, 
however,  to  reiterate  the  old  demand  for  an 


extension  of  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Act  so  as 
to  bar  all  Asiatics.  United  States  Senator 
Phelan  took  occasion  shortly  after  the  adjourn- 
ment of  said  covention  to  write  to  the  Califor- 
nia State  Federation  of  Labor  intimating  "that 
the  Federation  had  been  trapped  into  a  false 
position." 

This  was  denied  in  a  circular  letter  sent  out 
by  the  Executive  Council  of  the  Federation, 
reading,  in  part,  as  follows: 

"No,  Senator,  we  have  not  modified  our  views 
upon  the  Japanese  menace.  We  fully  realize 
the  danger  of  the  so-called  'Gentlemen's  Agree- 
ment' and  we  are  anxious  to  have  enacted  an 
exclusion  law  which  will  effectively  and  perma- 
nently bar  all  Japanese  laborers  from  our 
shores. 

"Our  objection  to  the  Japanese  in  California 
is  not,  as  you  so  well  know,  based  upon  trivial 
or  sentimental  reasons.  We  object  to  them  for 
economic  reasons,  we  know  Californians  can- 
not compete  with  them  and  maintain  an  Ameri- 
can standard  of  living.  And  we  have  been  in 
hopes  that  our  kind  treatment  of  the  two  dele- 
gates from  Japan,  and  our  own  efforts  to  have 
them  understand  fully  and  unequivocally  that 
we  have  no  grievance  against  the  Japanese  as 
long  as  they  remain  in  Japan,  might  have  a 

8 


tendency  to  bring  about  a  better  understand- 
ing between  the  wage-workers  of  Japan  and 
the  wage-workers  of  America.  If  we  have  failed 
in  this  honest  endeavor  it  will  be  no  fault  of 
ours.  We  have  at  least  tried." 

In  labor  circles  there  was  considerable  dis- 
cussion upon  the  question  throughout  the  year 
but  when  Suzuki  returned  from  Japan  a  year 
later  he  was  again  seated  in  the  convention 
with  only  a  few  dissenting  votes.  At  that  time 
(October,  1916)  Delegate  Suzuki  extended  a 
formal  invitation  to  the  convention  to  send  a 
fraternal  delegate  to  the  fifth  anniversary  of 
the  Laborers'  Friendly  Society  in  Japan,  to  be 
held  the  following  spring  in  Tokio. 

The  invitation  was  referred  to  a  committee 
and  in  due  time  the  committee  submitted  the 
following  report: 

"Upon  invitation  of  the  Japanese  Fraternal 
Delegate  to  send  a  representative  to  that  coun- 
try, your  committee  submits  the  following  reso- 
lution and  recommends  its  approval: 

"Whereas,  The  organized  labor  movement  of 
California  and  of  America  stands  ever  ready 
to  assist  the  workers  of  every  country,  color 
and  creed,  to  emancipate  themselves  from  ex- 
ploitation, and 

"Whereas,    It    has    been    necessary    at    times 

9 


for  the  working  class  of  this  country  to  pro- 
tect their  standard  of  living  by  favoring  the 
exclusion  of  foreign  competition,  in  the  spirit 
alone  of  imperative  necessity  and  self-protec- 
tion, and 

"Whereas,  We  have  learned,  with  interest 
and  gratification,  that  the  workers  of  Japan 
are  organizing  into  industrial  unions  for  their 
own  welfare;  a  movement  we  can  endorse; 
therefore,  be  it 

"Resolved,  By  the  Seventeenth  Annual  Con- 
vention of  the  California  State  Federation  of 
Labor,  that  we  give  to  Mr.  Suzuki,  the  fraternal 
delegate  from  the  Laborers'  Friendly  Society 
of  Japan,  our  expression  of  goodwill  and  a 
message  of  hope  and  encouragement  for  a 
brighter  future  of  the  working  class  of  his 
country;  and  be  it  further 

"Resolved,  That,  in  assuming  this  position 
of  a  greater  friendship  between  the  workers 
of  the  East  and  the  West,  we  must  continue 
our  unswerving  stand  upon  exclusion  until  such 
time  as  immigration  will  not  prove  a  menace 
to  our  own  unions,  our  working  people  and  our 
standard  of  living;  and  be  it  further 

"Resolved,  That  the  question  of  sending  a 
fraternal  delegate  from  this  body  to  the  Labor 
Convention  in  Japan  be  referred  to  the  Execu- 

10 


tive  Council  of  this  Federation,  with  the  hope 
that  a  delegate  can  be  selected  to  carry  a  mes- 
sage of  goodwill  and  encouragement  to  the 
laboring  class  of  Japan." 

The   report   of  the   Committee   was   adopted. 

In  November  of  the  same  year  Suzuki  at- 
tended the  annual  convention  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  which  met  at  Baltimore. 
This  convention  was  equally  emphatic  in  de- 
fining the  position  of  organized  labor  upon 
American-Japanese  working  class  relations,  by 
the  unanimous  adoption  of  the  following: 

"Resolved,  By  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  in  annual  convention  assembled  at  Balti- 
more, Md.,  that  we  note  with  extreme  pleasure 
and  satisfaction  the  fact  that  the  working 
people  of  Japan  are  organizing  into  unions 
and  federated  under  the  Laborers'  Friendly  So- 
ciety of  Japan;  that  we  bespeak  for  them  and 
their  movement  all  the  success  possible;  that 
we  recommend  that  the  Executive  Council  con- 
tinue its  friendly  office  in  an  effort  to  be  help- 
ful to  the  organization  of  the  workers  of  Japan 
in  every  way  possible  by  correspondence,  and 
that  it  send  a  message  of  fraternal  greeting, 
goodwill  and  best  wishes  for  the  success  of 
the  movement  to  organize  more  thoroughly  and 

11 


practically  the  wage-workers  of  Japan  to  bring 
light  in  their  work  and  their  lives." 

It  had  been  hoped  that  the  American  Fed- 
eration of  Labor  and  the  California  State  Feder- 
ation of  Labor  would  each  send  a  fraternal 
delegate  to  the  meeting  in  Japan  but  the  in- 
ternational situation  became  more  and  more 
critical  and  finally  resulted  in  America's  entry 
in  the  war.  That  put  an  end  to  plans  for 
developing  a  clearer  understanding  and  promot- 
ing mutual  goodwill  between  the  workers  in 
America  and  Japan. 

Suzuki  did  not  return  as  a  fraternal  dele- 
gate, but  since  his  last  visit  the  workers  of 
Japan  have  been  represented  at  two  interna- 
tional labor  conferences  held  under  the  auspices 
of  the  League  of  Nations,  and  in  each  instance 
the  Japanese  representative  gave  an  excellent 
account  of  himself. 

M.  Masumoto,  Japan's  labor  delegate  to  the 
International  Labor  Conference  held  in  Wash- 
ington, in  1919,  was  a  man  with  the  courage 
of  his  convictions.  Addressing  the  conference 
on  November  27,  Masumoto  characterized  his 
government  as  an  autocracy  which  is  the  enemy 
of  social  justice.  Pointing  to  the  Japanese  flag, 
he  declared  that  under  it  "there  is  a  police 
regulation  whose  aim  is  to  interfere  with  the 

12 


organization  of  labor."  Describing  what  he 
termed  the  danger  of  extending  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  Japan  special  treatment,  Masumoto  said 
the  industrial  workers  of  Japan  were  mostly 
women  and  children,  and  that  their  lives  ap- 
proached almost  that  of  slavery. 

A  second  international  labor  conference  was 
held  at  Genoa,  Italy,  during  June  and  July  of 
1920  to  consider  the  problems  of  seamen.  Just 
prior  to  said  conference  representatives  of  the 
world's  seamen  held  an  open  meeting  in  Genoa 
for  the  purpose  of  comparing  notes  and,  if 
possible,  to  agree  upon  a  joint  program  for 
submission  to  the  official  international  con- 
ference. 

At  both  of  these  meetings  the  seafarers  of 
Japan  were  represented  by  Ken  Okasaki,  an 
able,  courageous  and  resourceful  champion  of 
those  who  go  down  to  sea  in  ships. 

It  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  come  in  per- 
sonal contact  with  all  three  of  these  Japanese 
labor  representatives — Suzuki,  Masumoto  and 
Okasaki.  And  it  is  not  stretching  a  point  to 
assert  that  men  of  this  type  are  truly  a  credit 
to  the  working  people  in  Japan. 

Thrdugh  association  with  these  three  men, 
often  under  decidedly  trying  circumstances,  it 
has  become  a  fixed  beliet  with  me  that  Ameri- 

13 


can-Japanese  relations  can  be  adjusted  on  a 
basis  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  working  people 
in  both  nations.  No  claim  is  made  that  this 
can  be  done  by  professional  diplomats.  But 
a  series  of  heart-to-heart  talks  between  workers' 
representatives  from  America  and  Japan  will 
accomplish  wonders.  In  fact  there  will  be 
scarcely  any  ground  for  disagreement  after  a 
perfectly  frank  exchange  of  views  has  taken 
place.  Of  course,  there  must  be  honesty  of 
purpose  and  discussion  without  disguise. 

Japanese  and  American  diplomats  have  so 
beclouded  the  main  issue  that  the  average  man 
who  is  not  a  member  of  the  diplomats'  union 
and  hence  not  versed  in  the  fine  points  of  that 
game  cannot  possibly  follow  the  play. 

For  years  we  have  been  told  that  the  Japanese 
are  peeved  because  of  the  anti-Japanese  cam- 
paign in  California.  But  is  it  reasonable  to  as- 
sume that  any  Japanese  duly  acquainted  with 
the  immigration  policy  of  Australia  and  Canada 
can  have  any  grievance  against  California's 
efforts  to  similarly  protect  herself? 

Can  it  be  possible  that  any  considerable  num- 
ber of  Japanese,  outside  of  diplomatic  circles, 
will  seriously  claim  certain  rights  for  their  coun- 
trymen in  California  when  these  "rights"  have 

14 


been  and  are  being  denied  by  other  countries 
closely  allied  with  Japan? 

Every  well-informed  Japanese  knows  that  cer- 
tain groups  of  workers  in  Japan  have  time 
after  time  protested  against  the  importation  of 
Chinese  coolies.  Is  it  not  a  perfectly  natural 
corollary  that  the  working  people  of  the  Island 
Empire,  if  duly  informed,  will  not  only  under- 
stand but  actually  sympathize  with  the  identical 
attitude  of  American  workers? 

Trained  diplomats  may  answer  "No."  But 
here  is  one  California  trade-unionist  who  be- 
lieves that  the  working  people  in  Japan  will 
give  an  entirely  different  reply. 

To  be  sure,  the  case  must  be  presented  to 
them  in  its  entirety  and  also  in  its  true  colors. 
As  years  go  by  this  becomes  more  and  more 
difficult  because  politicians  and  statesmen  (so- 
called)  are  doing  their  utmost  to  make  frank 
and  manly  discussions  of  the  problem  a  virtual 
impossibility. 

But  it  is  not  too  late  to  start  right  now. 
The  organized  working  people  in  some  of  the 
countries  of  Europe  are  no  longer  content  with 
old  diplomatic  usages.  They  have  insisted,  and 
in  several  instances  succeeded,  in  securing  recog- 
nition for  men  from  the  ranks  of  labor.  It 
was  not  a  question  of  getting  government  jobs 

15 


for  labor  officials  but  rather  the  driving  of 
labor's  viewpoint,  labor's  thought  and  language, 
into  the  exclusive  set  who  are  labeled  "trained 
diplomats." 

So   here's   hoping  that   responsible    forces    will 
soon   be   at  work — 

1.  To     bring    about     an    intelligent    apprecia- 
tion  throughout   America   of  the   economic    need 
for  the   exclusion   of  Japanese. 

2.  To     map     out     a     plan,     open     and     above- 
board,    whereby    it    will    be    possible    to    reach    a 
thorough   understanding  between  the   workers   in 
Japan   and   the  workers   of  America. 

3.  To    cause    the    appointment    of    an    experi- 
enced  and    thoroughly    representative    labor   man 
for  service  (as  an  adviser)  at  each  of  the  princi- 
pal   American    embassies,    but    in    particular    at 
our  embassy  in  Tokio. 


